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Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

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Re: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

#91

Post by timvdalen »

systemvoltage wrote: post #73
janwillemb wrote: post #26

In the Netherlands the tagline of the tax authorities used to be "we can't make it funnier, but we can make it easier". Most tax forms are online and pre-filled with data they already have. For most people it's probably a matter of minutes.

I prefer the US style actually. The government assumes flexibility, citizen’s responsibility and their ability to challenge their calculations / deductions by default . When that’s not the case, there is 1040-EZ [1] for people who want to simplify. 1040-EZ can be done in 10 mins max. I also enjoy filing taxes. It’s one of those things that allow you to reflect on your work, how you did, optimize the deductions, and g…

Note that you can still do all those things in the Netherlands, you're just comparing the stuff that's already in there to your own documentation.

For most people, it's a case of quickly doublechecking all your income/property numbers and then spending some time on items you might be able to deduct.

Re: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

#92

Post by KirillPanov »

refurb wrote: post #82
KirillPanov wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just logging in and saying "yes" to the computed value Holy crap, so if a h4x0r breaks into that website they can see the income and assets of every citizen of your country? That's nuts. The IRS sucks, but believe it or not they're smart about keeping data secure. The massive mainframe into which all that employer-related data gets loaded is not web-connected. In fact, not even IRS employees can access the data in…

My understanding is income tax and income is public in many of these countries.

You've got to be kidding me. Like if I have somebody's name I can just call up their government and ask what their salary is? I find that hard to believe. Please name these countries.

Re: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

#93

Post by moooo99 »

TZVdosOWs3kZHus wrote: post #89

In Germany the official application to submit your taxes as a private person to the state has been a windows application for years. Using the app was a 1:1 copy of the official paper forms. Disregarding the complexity of the german tax law, you had a reference to the papers. So it was kind of easy to use the digital counterpart one was accustomed to. It was disimproved by hauling it into a web app, which breaks with…

I'm on my entry position and I had the pleasure to file my taxes for the first time in my life a few years back.

The web app is absolutely awful to use and offers easily the worst user experience I've ever seen. I gave up and decided to seek help by a Lohnsteuerhilfeverein, which is really comfortable but still way cheaper than a tax office. The only annoyance is, that they'll just help you with your tax submission if you're employed or on state benefits. They can't help you if you're self-employed or a freelancer which is somewhat annoying

Re: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

#94

Post by bennofs »

KirillPanov wrote: post #92
refurb wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is income tax and income is public in many of these countries.

You've got to be kidding me. Like if I have somebody's name I can just call up their government and ask what their salary is? I find that hard to believe. Please name these countries.

norway, according to this article: https://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2016/apr/11/when-it-c...

Re: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

#95

Post by mellavora »

CameronNemo wrote: post #13
jhabdas wrote: post #10

Suggestion: Add support for Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. If the trend is remote work, focus on the remote workers who would prefer not to pay income taxes.

No offense but I think they should be focused on common scenarios (income types and deductions that are likely to have many users), methods of verifying correctness, and long term maintainability in the face of a changing tax code. Expat workers seem so niche and there may be different requirements depending in their specific situation.

As an expat worker, a tool like this would be super helpful. Most of the automated tools (paid included) don't support the expat market, so electronic filing is basically impossible.

Part of the problem is a pervasive sense that if your are an expat, you are somehow guilty of something or not patriotic enough or some other undefined sin. All of US law seems to expect that you are US resident, yet we apply it globally.

Re: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

#96

Post by sverhagen »

aidangrimshaw wrote: post #34
spankalee wrote: post #23

How would you know that a project like this is computing taxes correctly?

A future improvement I am looking into is adding unit tests for tax calculation. If the project gets popular enough I would probably hire an accountant to verify everything.

When using a well-known site like TurboTax, while I'm totally appalled by their business practices, I have at least an assumption that I can do my taxes half decent (and not too much more than that either). It will be really hard for an open source project to gain enough momentum for me to have the same confidence. For a lot of other open source projects I can just try, and see what happens. But I'm not going to try and see what happens if I'm ever getting audited. And I'm using (begrudgingly) TurboTax exactly because I know nothing about tax code, so the unit tests (yet to be written) would not tell me much. I find this project very sympathetic, though, but I'll have to pass.

Re: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

#97

Post by chaoxu »

wiml wrote: post #8

For the past ~decade I've mostly been using OpenTaxSolver, a file-based open source US tax utility. It's worked for my uses. It'd be appealing to try to factor out the underlying translation of the tax code and IRS form layout into some very simple DSL that could be used by multiple kinds of software.

Yes, having a simple and well defined DSL it might help with tax planning. The difference is it allows one to optimize taxes under certain objective, instead of just enter numbers and see what comes up.

Re: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

#98

Post by ajmadesc »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #59
Hamuko wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good reason? No. A reason? Lobbying.

Why are other countries not victim to lobbying in the way America is? Is it just a double-edged sword that we have to thank for making us (one of) the economic powerhouse(s) of the world? At the same time, it feels like it to blame on why we can't have anything nice when compared to European countries. Am I out of line/uneducated on this matter? I very well could be. I hate just chalking the root of problems up to so…

American lobbying practices are criminal offences that would land you with corruption charges in Europe.

Re: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

#99

Post by mrwnmonm »

I have a company in the US, I was going to avoid paying taxes this year, because I found the process hard and actually we don't have enough money. But as I understand it, you need to work with an accountant, and you need someone to fill it for you if you are outside of the US. Can you fill it online in the US?

Re: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

#100

Post by consp »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #59
Hamuko wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good reason? No. A reason? Lobbying.

Why are other countries not victim to lobbying in the way America is? Is it just a double-edged sword that we have to thank for making us (one of) the economic powerhouse(s) of the world? At the same time, it feels like it to blame on why we can't have anything nice when compared to European countries. Am I out of line/uneducated on this matter? I very well could be. I hate just chalking the root of problems up to so…

> Why are other countries not victim to lobbying in the way America is?

My guess would be the will to collect taxes is stronger than the lobbying to make it more difficult. In Europe there is far less opposition to taxation as well.

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